Shared narratives

Without a shared narrative of the past, we don’t know how we got here. Without one of the present, we don’t know where here is.

Without a shared narrative of the past, we don’t know how we got here.

Without a shared narrative in the present, we don’t know where here is.

A shared narrative is everything from a water cooler conversation about last night’s episode of The Sopranos to general agreement about what happened in concentration camps in World War II.

A shared narrative creates a feeling of belonging in time and in place, a sense that the past made sense, the present is ripe for the picking and the future will open out in one of a small handful of possibilities.

A shared narrative meant a sure footing on solid ground, two things we’ve needed since we told stories around fires in caves.

Image via AI Hybrid / Deviant Art

Our shared narratives, and all shared narratives, are gone and gone forever.

The past is revised and revisited and redefined over and over again, so much so that you doubt everything you used to know.